Customers

"The new technology provides our customers with an opportunity to frequently collect data whilst saving costs as the systems operates un-manned"

– CEO Carsten Ottosen of OrtoSense

OrtoSense together with CIM Electronics and National Instruments develop a new and innovative monitoring system

The Challenge

Develop a new and innovative monitoring system to detect damage and imperfections in mechanical machinery

The Solution

Use the Compact Rio system from National Instruments to measure and collect data, and analyze this data with OrtoSense’s patented signal processing algorithms.

Innovation

For many years, engineers have determined when main bearings on wind turbines begin to malfunction, simply by listening to the turbine in operation. Until now, the idea has been to detect damages by using measuring equipment, predominantly based on frequency analysis. This approach has proven inadequate to provide data in an effective and reliable way. Frank Leonhard, the cofounder of OrtoSense, has recently developed a technology which outperforms existing technologies. It provides higher quality and more efficient monitoring, in line with the performance of the human ear.

- The new technology provides our customers with an opportunity to frequently collect data whilst saving costs as the systems operate un-manned, says CEO Carsten Ottosen of OrtoSense. The new monitoring system is based on an algorithm that in its simple form processes the collected data by a non-destructive measuring system, and thereby evaluates the conditions of the individual machine or wind turbine. When the collected signals indicate a problem emerging, the system sends a warning and subsequently, if a given limit is exceeded, the system dispatches an alarm.

Patented Innovative Analysis

The algorithm embedded in the new technology is based on the knowledge that the human ear perceives oscillations and not only frequencies. By comparing the oscillation frequencies, a much higher accuracy is achieved. This allows separation of signals and thereby detection of adverse changes in the sound spectrum much earlier than traditional frequency analysis, reports Frank Leonhard. The development of the method has been 15 years in the making and the idea dates back to Frank Leonhard’s Licentiate Thesis. For the past four years the development has evolved, the test phase is now completed and the algorithm analysis is patented in several countries. The next step is to properly commercialize the company’s ground-breaking knowledge.

Robust Measuring Equipment

The first step has been to manufacture the measuring equipment and develop the software enabling OrtoSense to collect, analyze and present the data efficiently. For this, OrtoSense has teamed up with the software engineering company CIM Electronics, who has extensive experience in technical database applications and intuitive graphical user interfaces.

CIM Electronics has developed a SCADA system which can process the data analyzed by OrtoSense’s algorithm, and generate graphs showing relevant information about the vibrations in a given machine. OrtoSense’s monitoring system is based on predetermined limits and emergency thresholds. In case the incoming measured values exceed these preset limits, warnings will be issued automatically.